A wasteful tactic to fight inefficiency

Dec. 8, 2009 12:00 AMThe Arizona Republic

In the name of "efficiency," the governing board of the Maricopa County Community College District seems intent on breaking the bank.

The odd, overbearing directors of the county's huge community-college system spent more than $1 million this summer on a consultancy that spent four months ferreting out "inefficiencies" in district operations.

Now, they may compound that foolish waste by - wasting far more money. As much as $6 million more, in fact, to hire the consultants on a long-term contract to implement all the "efficiencies" it has discovered.

The report by Alvarez & Marsal consultants is to be presented to the public on Wednesday.

Normally, boards of directors seek to improve the efficiency of their operations through the people they have hired to run things. In this case, that would be Chancellor Rufus Glasper and his administration.

Unfortunately, members of the community-college board distrust Glasper and his staff so profoundly that they are willing to spend millions of the taxpayers' dollars to effectively second-guess Glasper and undercut his staff. There is a lot wrong with a strategy like that, but let's focus on the one that stands out like a sore thumb:

It is astonishingly inefficient.

Even Glasper candidly noted in an interview with an Arizona Republic editorial writer on Monday that if you don't trust your CEO, then you should get another CEO.

No doubt governing board President Colleen Clark, the ringleader of this consultant-binge, would love to do just that. Our educated guess is that the micromanaging Clark has the votes to waste a bundle of money on consultants but not enough to remove Glasper.

Never in our wildest editorial dreams would we have imagined that district board member Debra Pearson - a former state lawmaker renowned for her teary-eyed, operatic speechifying - would be the most rational actor in this group, but there you are.

Pearson argues that the MCCCD has the personnel in place to enact any efficiencies the board chooses to adopt. That sounds right to us as well.

The Alvarez & Marsal firm specializes in rescuing urban public-school districts suffering administrative meltdown. That does not come close to describing the circumstances facing MCCCD, which is on sound financial footing, at least in the near term.

No doubt the consultants will find some efficiencies worth implementing in the county's enormous community-college system. It would be nice if the changes saved at least $1 million. Regardless, we're confident enough that the district administrators can make those changes happen, even if its board members are not.